Types of Hackers

As the world moves further into the online space, the roles and goals of hackers have evolved as well. Various new types of hackers have also emerged over the years, leading us to create a list with the most common hacker types. Before we get into the different types of hackers that exist, let’s discuss what a hacker is.

What is a hacker?

A hacker is someone with the knowledge, skills, and experience to gain unauthorized access to data, either by breaching the target’s firewalls or using something as simple as a phishing E-Mail to gain entry into the target’s systems. Most people are familiar with Black and White Hat hackers; however, many new types have emerged over the years. The type of hacker someone is depends on their skills and intent; they can be individuals or work part of a group or collective.

What often happens with the different types of hacker groups or collectives is that they can partner on certain projects. This is because some groups specialize on one method of attack but need help with another method for a certain project. This leads them to partner with other groups that have those skills. Oftentimes these groups have similar ideologies and are affiliated with each other, though it’s not always like this.

The different hacker types have been divided into groups based on their intent or how they use their skills and expertise.
 

Good types of hackers: White hat, blue hat and red hat

Good hackers are ones who have positive intent, meaning they use their skills to help people and organizations. They often have legal authority to evaluate the protections and levels of cybersecurity of various organizations; as well as being hired to hack into networks or systems to fight back against bad hackers. The list of hackers with good intent is as follows:

1. White Hat: This is a hacker whose role is to assess the cybersecurity of organizations. This means their intent is to find potential holes other hackers could slip through to attack the organization they work for, and help these organizations fix those holes to prevent hackers with bad intent or motives from getting through the firewalls. They are also called Ethical hackers, since they work according to the rules and laws that the government has put in place.
2. Blue Hat: This type of hacker is similar to White Hat hackers, except they do not work directly for the organization they are doing cybersecurity testing for. Their intent is to test the security of organizations about to launch a new product or feature.
3. Red Hat: This hacker will ruthlessly fight against Black Hat hackers and will not stop until they have been defeated or given up on their attack. Red Hats do this of their own volition, they are not hired by organizations to do this. They are sometimes referred to as Robin Hood hackers or vigilantes. Their intent is to bring down Black Hats through any means necessary without involving the authorities.

Bad types of hackers: Black hat, script kiddies and state-sponsored

These are hackers with negative intentions who use their skills and expertise for profit or to cause damage to governments, organizations, or institutions.

1. Black Hat: These are hackers who gain unauthorized access to data in organizations, institutes, or government facilities for the goal of receiving money from the target to get their data back. They are considered criminals, and dangerous. Their intent is often profit-motivated; these can be groups or individuals.
2. Script Kiddies: These are juveniles or teenagers with no hacking skills who copy existing hacking techniques they find online and target them at organizations or people for profit. Their intent is simply to cause as much damage as possible to systems and networks.
3. State-sponsored: These are hackers who are hired by their government to access confidential data and information about other countries and ensure the government who hired them is protected on the cyber landscape. All funding comes from the government that hired them. These are usually individuals, not groups, whose intent is to ensure their government is prepared for any situation, whether it be politically motivated or not.

Neutral types of hackers: Green hat, hacktivists and elite

These are hackers whose intent can vary depending on the mood of the hacker or what the hacker’s goals are with certain projects. They have skills and expertise that they use for good, for bad, or simply for learning new skills.

1. Green Hat: These are unskilled hackers – or hackers in training – who want to learn and improve their skills and will therefore listen to other hackers and be mentored by them, no matter if they are White Hat or Black Hat. Their intent is to learn all the skills and techniques used in the cyber world to become proper hackers.
2. Hacktivist: This is a type of hacker that is an online activist. Often they will attack organizations or governments online whose ideologies they disagree with and gain unauthorized access to their data. These are often groups or collectives, such as Anonymous. Their intent is to broadcast the target’s agenda or ideology for political or social gain and spread awareness of what the target is up to. They are seen as both good and bad, as they fight for what they believe in, but their activities are still illegal. Read our explanation about hacktivism for a better understanding of what this means.
3. Elite: These are highly skilled hackers with years of experience with different programming languages; they can be either Black Hat or White Hat depending on what they want. They are often the ones creating new malware or cyberattack techniques which they post on the dark web for other hackers to use, such as Script Kiddies.

One thing to keep in mind is that some hackers can also hide behind certain labels to prevent their true identity from being discovered. For example, the hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan originally claimed to belong to well-known hacktivist group Anonymous; however, soon after their inception in January 2023, Anonymous distanced themselves from Anonymous Sudan and denied any association. This is referred to as a false flag, where a specific group attempts to cover their tracks and shift blame for the attack to a different individual or group.

Conclusion: There are always new types of hackers

There are more types of hackers currently working in the online space, and new ones will emerge as time progresses and societal needs change. The fast-paced evolution of the internet and IT capabilities will create space for new types of hackers, however there will always be those who use their skills for good, and those who use their skills for bad. This list of the different types of hackers that exist today is a brief overview and explanation about each hacker type’s intention and skill.

Read our article about ransomware for further tips and tricks about the best way to protect your organization from attack.